"A chronicle of organized human aggression gets a timely update in this new edition of a seminal book originally published 20 years ago. As Dyer covers the history of human warfare-from primitive tribal skirmishes and the 'total war' of WWI and II to the imbroglios of the past 30 years (including the current one in Iraq)-a sense of cyclical inexorability begins to creep in, of history repeating itself again and again. One is struck by the notion that the only changes in the historical narrative of humans at war are new strategies necessitated by new, and exponentially more deadly, technologies. Implicit in Dyer's argument is the idea that, in war, humans have become increasingly subjugated to the increasingly awesome power of their machines, so that the nuclear stalemate of the Cold War becomes a logical extension of the deadlock of WWI trench warfare. Dyer is an accomplished military historian who bolsters his extensive knowledge with a rhetorical style that is at once invisible and entirely convincing. Structurally, the book accordions in and out from the psychology of individual soldiers, to the workings of whole armies, to broader historical movements and how they change (and stay the same) through time. It is a powerful effect, and one that ultimately makes this book at once a valuable historical treatise and a fervent and compelling call toward pacifism. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Dyer--a veteran, scholar of military history and war studies, and newspaper columnist on international affairs and security policy--updates his argument that the game of war is up, and people are going to have to change the rules in order to survive. The 1985 first edition grew out of a television series, and the quotations remain from that Cold War period as well as from thinkers as far back as Rousseau, Darwin, and Hobbes.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dyer--a veteran, scholar of military history and war studies, and newspaper columnist on international affairs and security policy--updates his argument that the game of war is up, and people are going to have to change the rules in order to survive. The 1985 first edition grew out of a television series, and the quotations remain from that Cold War period as well as from thinkers as far back as Rousseau, Darwin, and Hobbes. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

A brilliant, powerful, and lucid text on warfare that explores anthropology, archeology, and strategic theory, while asking the vital question: Is war an inevitable part of the human future, or can we leave it behind, as we have slavery and human sacrifice?